I’ve never disassembled mine, so I have no actual idea. I hit the zerks with Red and Tacky every so often (yes, I know…), and they remain quite as mouse.
Johnny Joint grease—an experiment
- Thread starter Mike_H
- Start date
I’ve never disassembled mine, so I have no actual idea. I hit the zerks with Red and Tacky every so often (yes, I know…), and they remain quite as mouse.
I would think some very fine surface texture could be advantageous for giving the grease a place to sit, but I'm not a tribologist.
For the deposits on mine, Cv2 yes, energy suspension f5 prelube no.
None of these sound particularly similar to our application, but silicone and PTFE are silicone and PTFE, right?
I put the tube on my wife's bedside table and told her I had something in mind for our upcoming anniversary. She didn't fall for it.
I put the tube on my wife's bedside table and told her I had something in mind for our upcoming anniversary. She didn't fall for it.
Poking around Rock Krawlers website, never really looked much into their Krawler joints so I don't know what the shells are made of or how tight they are around the ball or how they last compared to a JJ but I noticed they have zerks and grooves in the shell to distribute grease and the inner ball is chrome plated. Looks a lot like @Mike_H mod.
They also come in the right size and thread to swap into my Savvy upper arms.
They also come in the right size and thread to swap into my Savvy upper arms.
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This was what my rear LCAs looked like. Last greased with CV2 in summer 2022.
Nothing left that even resembles grease, its just cakey dirt.
The ones that had been in my axle housing went in as they came, have never been apart for greasing. No preload.
I now have synergy DDBs in the front axle housing and the axle end of the rear LCAs. Johnny joints everywhere else. The fronts have Rockjock JJ grease (or whatever they ship them with) at both ends of the lowers and CV2 in the uppers. The rears have SuperLube silicone with PTFE in the lowers and I'll put the same in the uppers when I get to them.
Nothing left that even resembles grease, its just cakey dirt.
The ones that had been in my axle housing went in as they came, have never been apart for greasing. No preload.
I now have synergy DDBs in the front axle housing and the axle end of the rear LCAs. Johnny joints everywhere else. The fronts have Rockjock JJ grease (or whatever they ship them with) at both ends of the lowers and CV2 in the uppers. The rears have SuperLube silicone with PTFE in the lowers and I'll put the same in the uppers when I get to them.
my rear UCA's were really creaking when I was cycling things as I replaced my rear springs this weekend. I pulled one off and this is what the Johnny Joints look like. These had been previous lubricated with Energy Suspension formula 5 prelube.
The balls and the races mostly feel dry. Where there is accumulation of grease on the outer edges where there's not tight, preload contact, it's REALLY tacky, and feels more like an adhesive than a lubricant. Now I'm researching chemical compatibility to try to find a solvent that will remove the silicone grease without damaging the polyurethane...Thinking I may try gasoline.
Edit: mineral spirits did the trick but based on the fact that mineral spirits are used as a thinner for polyurethane paint, I think long term exposure would not be good. So I just wiped them with a soaked paper towel and quickly put them in a dish soap bath.
The whole thing gives me a bit of pause about using any more silicone based grease on these, but I'm stuck for a couple of days if I wait because I happen to be out of CV2 and its not available locally.
The balls and the races mostly feel dry. Where there is accumulation of grease on the outer edges where there's not tight, preload contact, it's REALLY tacky, and feels more like an adhesive than a lubricant. Now I'm researching chemical compatibility to try to find a solvent that will remove the silicone grease without damaging the polyurethane...Thinking I may try gasoline.
Edit: mineral spirits did the trick but based on the fact that mineral spirits are used as a thinner for polyurethane paint, I think long term exposure would not be good. So I just wiped them with a soaked paper towel and quickly put them in a dish soap bath.
The whole thing gives me a bit of pause about using any more silicone based grease on these, but I'm stuck for a couple of days if I wait because I happen to be out of CV2 and its not available locally.
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OP
Any petroleum product will eventually dissolve plastic, since they are both made from petroleum. I used brake cleaner, diesel, kerosene, etc to clean mine. Whatever is handy. The liquids are much more volatile than the solids, so you really don’t have much to worry about
Did you have the same experience with silicone turning gummy and disappearing almost entirely from the bearing surfaces? At least the Cv2 still left stuff a somewhat greasy/oily feeling when I took the joint apart, even if it was creaking at the time.
OP
Yeah, but I didn’t find that unusual, since I’ve had the same experience with CV2
Interesting. My experience with the Cv2 was that it got cakey but it seemed easier to clean off without hardcore solvent. I soaked the shells in soapy water and then wiped them clean.
Local parts store doesn't have anything with moly that comes in a tube, and I'm still holding out hope that I can get the hole lined up with the zerk and shoot grease into it so I don't want to start off with something that's only available in a tub. I guess if nothing else it'll help me keep straight what I have going on if I put the SuperLube in the rear and moly in the front.
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Supporting Member
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I can't remember, why is the Moly grease that Rock Jock sells not used?
I'm guilty of not using it either. When I got my Savvy arms, I pulled all the joints to make sure they were greased after reading on here about some getting them with little to no grease. As it turned out two or three of mine had little to no grease as well. I used Cv2 on all of them except the two front upper axle joints. I meant to check them and use Cv2 but those went on at a later time and I forgot and just never got around to doing it.
I'm guilty of not using it either. When I got my Savvy arms, I pulled all the joints to make sure they were greased after reading on here about some getting them with little to no grease. As it turned out two or three of mine had little to no grease as well. I used Cv2 on all of them except the two front upper axle joints. I meant to check them and use Cv2 but those went on at a later time and I forgot and just never got around to doing it.
I don't know, but I've got a tube of it on the way. I just got a shipping notification since my last post that it'll deliver on Wednesday so I might wait for it.
OP
I have some too, but I’ve been too lazy to try and squirt some in. Mine aren’t making noise…but I’ll get around to it. It’s about time for my annual maintenance anyway
I hope you all figure this out soon before I get this midarm on! Then I can also lube up the savvy arms when the new owner takes them.
OP
I've been waiting on them to crack the code myself. Once they do I'll start working on mine.
If the holes aren't lined up, drill through the plastic with a small drill bit. Somebody at RockJock told me to do that. You probably still won't get them to take much grease but at least a little will get to the ball.
I'll see after this next set, but so far I've needed to service them every 18 months so far.
Don't know if you've had the curiosity combined with the patience to do this, but I went at this while watching Reacher and figured out that it's Phillips 66 Megaplex XD5 #2, wrapped in a very well adhered Rockjock label.
It doesn't seem any easier or cheaper to get than just buying it from Rockjock so if I need another tube I'll probably buy the RJ version again, but I'm not sure what would make it any more special than any other run of the mill lithium complex #2 grease with 5% moly, or why it would work any differently than Cv2...
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